A collage photo of Godswill Akpabio, Bola Tinubu and Tajudeen Abbas
A showdown seems to be looming in the House of Representatives between lawmakers elected on the platform of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their opposition counterparts over the $2.2m (N1.77tn) loan request by President Bola Tinubu.
This is as the Deputy Spokesperson of the House, Mr Philip Agbese declared that the Green Chamber will have no trouble approving external borrowing request from President Bola Tinubu.
President Tinubu’s loan request was contained in a letter transmitted to the parliament and read by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, during Tuesday’s plenary.
If approved, the President said the loan would fund the N9.7tn deficit in the 2024 budget.
The Senate has already approved the loan request, with the House expected to debate same ahead of its approval later in the week.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose administration will be a year and half old in a few days has got a total of $4.1 billion loan.
Available data has shown that the federal government first took $1.95bn loan from World Bank.
The loans were $700m for education, $750m for power and $500m for women empowerment.
Also the at close of Nigeria’s activities at the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Spring meeting in Washington DC, the United States, this year, Wale Edun, minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, announced that the administration is expecting a fresh $2.2bn single-digit interest loan from the World Bank. This brings the total loan so far to $4.1bn
Edun, said another budget support facility is expected to be disbursed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
“We have qualified for the processing just this week to the Board of Directors of the World Bank of a total package of $2.25bn of what you can call ‘the closest you can get to a free lunch’; virtually a grant. It’s for about 10 to 20 years moratorium and about one per cent interest,” Edun said, adding “In addition, there is a similar budgetary support – low-interest funding – from the African Development Bank (AfDB).”
Recall that, on August 9, 2023, Tinubu inaugurated a tax committee with mandate to raise revenue because his government inherited a ‘bad government’ and he will not continue with the “circle of debt”.
Days later, Edun, also emphasised the President’s position on loans at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on August 28, 2023.
He said, “The federal government is not in a position to borrow at this time. Rather, the emphasis has to be on creating a stable, macroeconomic environment, stable inflation, stable exchange rate, an environment within which people can come and invest and thereby increase production and further grow the economy.
“So that is the plan. That is the expectation and it is that there will not be a reliance on borrowing.”
NATIONAL WAVES like millions of Nigerians is worried at the way the National Assembly hurry to approve any bill or request from the executive, including series of requests for loans without any thorough debate or scrutiny. It would seem the parliamentarians have lost their power and oversight .
It’s ridiculous that since Thursday, June 13, 2024, when the federal legislature clocked a year in office, observers have been keen to assess how far it has gone in fulfilling its constitutional obligations in terms of providing effective legislation, promulgating people-centred bills, exercising its well-enshrined legal independence and offering executive oversights, among others.
While some analysts have said the Akpabio-led 10th National Assembly hasn’t performed creditably well, especially given the fact that it has untowardly exhibited some of the defects that eroded the credibility of past legislative assemblies in the country, including being submissive to the dictates of the President, other observers feel a year is not enough to start measuring how far a legislative assembly has gone in discharging its legal responsibilities for the teeming masses.
Those of the latter school of thought argued that despite the sleaze of the Nigerian political class, the current lopsided federal system and over-centralised constitutional framework being operational in the country would always make the clime very ungovernable and antithetical to developments for any set of leaders no matter how strong-willed they may be.
Meanwhile, the Senate recently said that in one year, its members had introduced about 477 bills while 25 of them had been passed.
The Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, who disclosed this in commemoration of the first anniversary of the 10th National Assembly, said the legislature over the years had focused on addressing other fundamental national priorities as mandated by the constitution.
Bamidele said, “Since its inauguration on June 13, 2023, the 10th Senate has introduced 477 bills. Of these, 25 have been fully enacted into law, while others are at various stages of the legislative process.”
The Senate leader added, “Despite the seemingly low percentage of fully passed bills — 5.24 per cent — the Senate’s focus has also been on addressing other fundamental national priorities as mandated by the constitution.
“In addition to legislative activities, the Senate has passed 115 resolutions of significant consequence to economic development and national stability. These resolutions stemmed from motions of national importance, sponsored by various senators after thorough consideration.”
The Senate leader, however, said that bills were not the only means to assess legislators. He said, “Many people may measure our performance based on the number of bills that were fully passed into law. Different reasons account for the low number of fully enacted legislations. This can be ascribed mainly to other issues of highly fundamental national priority that occupied the attention of the Senate.
“Put differently, it is purely due to the imperatives of attending to other obligations as required by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”
The Senate leader also noted that in the last 366 days, the Senate had been strategically collaborating with key public institutions, “especially the executive arm, to defend our core interest as a federation; ensure macroeconomic stability; promote internal cohesion as well as foster unity among ethnic nationalities that constitute our dear nation.”
Many are not convinced that the current Assembly has performed creditably well.
On that note, the National Assembly must ensure that they stick to their oversight and an effective check on the executive, it must resist the temptation of being a rubber stamp of the executive.
In approving the request for loans, the parliamentarians must tie their approval to certain conditions such as utilizing the loans for public good and must monitor that the funds are not diverted.
